Review: Black Panther Teaser Trailer

The highly anticipated teaser trailer for “Creed” director Ryan Coogler’s Marvel adaptation “Black Panther” has finally arrived, after being released during game four of the NBA finals, and it’s all kinds of awesome.

Firstly, it’s exciting seeing Chadwick Boseman reprise his role as T’Challa (aka the Black Panther) as well as getting to see his origins. What’s also amazing is that the trailer shows Michael B. Jordan as Erik Kilmonger, an exiled Wakandan who intends to take Black Panther off the throne. We also get a glimpse of Danai Gurira (Nakia) and Lupita Nyong’o (Okoye) as the Dora Milaje, T’Challa’s personal bodyguards who are trained in special forces. Angela Bassett also graces us with her presence as Ramonda, who looks like the Storm that we all wanted.

If that weren’t impressive enough, the trailer also features a variety of actions scenes, which include gun combat as well as battles with spears, axes, and shields – there’s even a scene with Danai Gurira kicking ass in a dress as well as another with Lupita Nyong’o in Dora Milaje combat uniform.

One of the action scenes in the trailer. Credit: Marvel Studios.

All this is accompanied by rap duo Run The Jewels’s dope beat “Legend Has It”, which starts off at a low tempo then quickens as the action intensifies and the trailer approaches its climax. The trailer then ends with a part of the song that sounds like, but perhaps isn’t, bells being rung. This matches nicely with the Black Panther title and release date information shown.

Including this song in the trailer was an excellent choice not only because it fits the scenes so well, but also because the rap duo, Mike and El, often speak out against power and corruption in their songs. And these aspects seem to be hinted upon in the trailer as it focuses on ideas of power and monarchy in its scenes. This is especially apparent when a voiceover states that “soon there will only be the conquered and the conquerors.”

I’d give this trailer a 5/5 because it hooked me and has me looking forward to the theatrical trailer as well as the film itself, which reaches UK cinemas on 16th February 2018.